Tag: sustainable transport

NHS Lothian invests over half a million pounds into electric fleet

NHS Lothian has invested over half a million pounds into its electric fleet as part of its ongoing efforts to be a leader in sustainable healthcare.

Over £525,000 has recently been spent on 58 electric vehicles and 46 charging stations at sites across NHS Lothian.

Iain Sneddon, Transport Manager for NHS Lothian, said: “Climate change poses the biggest threat to global health and its vital that we adapt to this as an organisation, not just as individuals.

“Electric vehicles are the preference when we’re looking to grow our fleet or replace vehicles. Not only are they a cleaner alternative, but they have the added benefit of being more cost-effective.”

With the additional 58 electric vehicles, this brings the total number of electric vehicles in NHS Lothian to 187, which is just over a quarter of NHS Lothian’s fleet.

NHS Lothian received its first three electric vehicles in 2012. In 2019, Transport Scotland provided funding which resulted in an additional 39 electric vehicles being added to the fleet.

Since 2019, the electric fleet has travelled over 1.5 million miles and has been used by teams such as podiatry, physiotherapy and forensic. 

The average car emits 0.78 pounds of CO2 per mile driven, which means NHS Lothian has prevented around 500 tonnes of CO2 being released into local communities.

Dr Jane Hopton, Sustainability Lead for NHS Lothian, said: “Making our fleet greener is part of our wider strategy to ensure NHS Lothian is a leader in sustainable healthcare.

“We’ve also been working to reduce the impact medical gasses have on the environment, as well growing our green spaces and improving our energy infrastructure.

“Iain and his team have done a fantastic job over the last few years with the fleet and have clearly had a huge impact already on reducing NHS Lothian’s carbon footprint.”

Living Lab: a new approach to finding solutions

Among the delegates at last night’s Inverleith Community Conference was a group of Edinburgh University students – yes, those enthusiastic young guys in the bright red tops!

DSCF2192The students are working with Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership on a project to look at more innovative ways to encourage walking and cycling – and they want to hear from you! Let them explain:

Edinburgh Living Lab is a new partnership involving the City of Edinburgh Council and students and staff from the University of Edinburgh.

The goal of the Living Lab is to encourage innovation in the development of services, processes and products in the city. What makes the Living Lab different is not so much it’s aims as it’s methods.

Developing new solutions should always involve users from the start, and as far as possible should take place in real world contexts: on the street, in parks, cafes, community centres, homes and offices rather than in contrived laboratory settings.

As well as designing in collaboration with users there is an emphasis on rapidly implementing project ideas, testing and measuring their effectiveness, refining them or throwing them away as required.

We are currently involbed in a ten week pilot project with Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership, where teams of Masters students from the University’s Design Informatics degree are experimenting with novel ideas for increasing the uptake of active travel in Inverleith. Data plays a central role in their projects: some of this will be existing data sets such as those produced by the Council, but some will be freshly collected during the course of the projects, using surveys, observation and digital techniques.

Edinburgh Living Lab is currently at an experimental stage and we welcome contributions from participants at the conference and of course from the residents of Inverleith.

Interested? To find out more visit www.edinburghlivinglab.org/

BRAINS ON BIKES

Do you want to help improve cycling in Inverleith? Want to take part in a short study where you will get to wear Google Glass and a high tech EEH headset?

Intrigued? Contact Kim Taylor on 0754 161 0222 or email kimritaylor@gmail.com for more information!

To sign up for the study go to:  http://goo.gl/forms/9vXJCxE4y2

Lazarowicz: take the brakes off cycling funding

Mark Lazarowicz MP has highlighted progress in Edinburgh to make cycling safer and more attractive but stressed much needs to be done if the UK is to emulate countries like the Netherlands or Denmark.

The North & Leith MP spoke in a Westminster debate on cycling policy yesterday. He said: “The Pedal on Parliament each year shows just how much enthusiasm there is here in Edinburgh for cycling and the City Council deserves praise for its commitment through funding and other initiatives.

“There is still a long way to go however with cycling only making up 2% of all journeys in the UK each year compared to 27% of those in the Netherlands and 19% of journeys in Denmark.

“Cycling has real benefits to offer, it’s healthy, cuts the number of cars on the roads and with it pollution and accidents but we need to integrate it fully into transport infrastructure and make sure funding is there to do it.”

In 2012 City of Edinburgh Council made a commitment to increase cycling’s share of the transport budget by 1% each year and it has stuck to it: from 5% two years ago it now stands at 7%. The city council is also consulting on the extension of 20mph zones in Edinburgh.

 Mark Lazarowicz’s speech can be found in full here.

NOTE: If you’re interested in cycling, walking and sustainable transport issues don’t miss Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s community conference on Thursday 30 October. Details below:

INP walk